re: Class of 2027 Football Recruiting

Yeah I agree with you on each of these cases.
I’m a huge fan of Haven and I like Newkirk a lot as well so there’s some positives here.

I sometimes worry about perception becoming reality for recruits and if we get too far from being seen as a hot school for these players then that could be not great but most of them are just chasing a check so I’m not sure it matters anymore. We’ll be as hot as our checkbook allows us to be.

It’s not that Alabama does not have the money for this player, but they are unwilling to spend what it would take to get this 3 star because they don’t believe the price is justified.

Claims that Alabama is NIL poor are false. They are estimated to be 3td in the SEC this year at $30 mil, behind LSU and one of the Texas schools. Most of that is for retention.

Clinton-Dix, director of player development, said in response to the hue and cry upon the departure of James Smith, “Why? Where is the production?” Good point, he had 25 tackles and 2 or 3 sacks for the year. He also had 2 awful personal foul penalties. One vs FSU was critical. In the “blowout” loss, Alabama was trailing by 7 in the 4the qtr, he committed a crucial, meaningless, volitional, unwise personal foul after Bama had stopped them on 3rd down to get the ball back and possibly tie the score. I forget when the other was committed, but it was similar in nature.

Again, Alabama is not out of money but relatively strategic and disciplined in their spending. They are supposedly offering a boatload to Sales, maybe whatever it takes, if he really wants to come. They apparently consider him that important. (These comments re: Sales are not based on any inside info but the impressions left on me by the comments of others who do.)

Things are simply not as many think and say. Only time will tell if their approach will be successful. Their proven ability as great evaluators of talent is the key. I’m very optimistic and believe it is Alabama’s best, probably only, path to great success in the current environment.

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1 who has two brothers on the team

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I think someone mentioned it earlier but it seems that there was very little to no interest by Saab in coming to Alabama. They weren't even mentioned in his announcement as one of the schools Oregon beat out.

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but I think it is higher risk strategy than frick you money
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I agree, but as you know, Alabama does not have “frick you money”, thus it is her only path.

This brings us to a larger issue: as the University most dependent upon football for its identity, IMO, it behooves the institution itself to provide the funds needed to compete on a level field with the Jed Clampets, shoe cobblers, et al. George Denny’s name is rightly on the Stadium and Robert Witt should be more greatly honored because they and others including Rose and Matthews understood, established, then maintained or revived it. I.e., the University itself could decline catastrophically if they allow Alabama’s football fortunes to decline precipitously.

They are not at the edge yet, but IMO, it’s something they need to be thinking about. I assume they are, but who knows?

Delete. Don't want to drive down that road on this board.

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I don’t know what this looks like though. There’s nothing we can do from a money raising standpoint that other teams who already are ahead of us aren’t already doing.


I will personally absolutely hate the date an ad is placed on our jersey. But LSU is ready to put a tramp stamp on their garbage arse jerseys if it means Lane has an extra WR to throw to. Teams will be whoring out their stadium names and everything else so we’ll only be keeping up with the Jones’ while giving up the best traditions in the sports.


We have the highest social media following in major college athletics but those followers don’t seemingly have an appetite for helping the team be good in any way.

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You're hitting on the big point. At some point, the brand and traditions behind college football is completely eroded away and it just makes more sense to follow the NFL exclusively. The NFL is not an anachronism stuck in an unworkable middle ground, it is a professional sports league fully aware of how to maximize competition in an equitable way that keeps even Jets fans hooked despite all logic saying they should abandon ship. All it takes is a few good picks or a free agency win and you're a contender in the NFL. However nobody can overawe the sport because they're a bigger billionaire than the others.

The University of Alabama has some hard problems to confront if our strategy does not turn out to be the path to consistent contention for championships. Too much of the University's financial stability is dependent on this place being a fun "student life" option. I deleted my post above because I expounded on this more than I care to given the subject area but I do not think it is politically feasible for the University to make an elite academics play if the athletics-based student life story flounders. Sure, we're better academically than we have been previously but I'm talking about making a stab at becoming like UT-Austin or Cal-Berkley...top public higher education institutions in almost every field.

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RB: Crowell/Dear/Brown

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Tremendous potential if Crowell pans out. What I don't get is why there hasn't been anymore mention of AK Dear this off-season. I was hoping he would step up and take rb1 but that doesn't seem to be the case. No offense to Daniel Hill but if he's our best option I don't foresee much improvement in the run game.

Crowell is a monster. I am honestly going to be shocked if he isnt RB2 by game 3 or 4. Hes a legit heisman caliber RB.

Think of it as a “small money class”
instead of a “small recruiting class” and that should help it make more sense.

Last years were “small classes” bc they were only 21-23 players respectively, but they were full of top100 caliber players.

Next year the money saved from this class will go towards what should be another top-3/top-5 caliber class for 2027-2028.

Small money classes make sense. People don’t like when you consider anything but the “everything coming up tide” angle but it could backfire. That’s all I’ve been saying. Seeing most big recruits with their name attached to ours go the other way then saying “all according to plan” is fine and all but there are parts of the plan that nobody really controls. Of course, I think the backfire hinges on DeBoer putting a bad product on the field. While he’s had some stinkers, he’s basically produced an overall success team each year he’s been a HC. However, injuries are fickle and mean even more in this depthless era. So your team suffers the wrong injuries early enough in the season, it can turn miserable quick, fast, and in a hurry.